Comment:

The project continues to make impressive progress toward meeting its primary goals. The proponents have responded to the majority of past ISRP recommendations with new and revised project components and approaches. The project provides valuable information, analytical models, landscape applications, and restoration approaches for conservation efforts both within and outside the Columbia River Basin.

1. Objectives, Significance to Regional Programs, and Technical Background

The project proponents responded constructively to the 2018 ISRP Research Review and, as well, developed explicit hypotheses, quantifiable objectives, and explicit timelines. This strengthens the research and provides a useful example for other projects. Timing of research components and objectives are clearly identified in the project timeline.

Important components for the project's technical foundations include (1) past project results that show that heat exchange between the channel and alluvial aquifer can influence main channel temperature regimes, (2) results supporting the conclusion that "stream restorations in alluvial valleys that consider the hyporheic zone have shown significant increases in juvenile salmonid use, including Meacham Creek, Rock Creek and Catherine Creek restoration efforts" and (3) that future modeling and land classification will provide tools to restore lost hyporheic potential across the Columbia Basin.

The technical foundation of the proponents' research is well documented and supported by their peer-reviewed publications.

The proposal not only describes benefits to habitat restoration programs but also identifies a link between their hyporheic research and the First Foods management approach of the CTUIR River Vision. This link between habitat restoration and the First Foods concept is extremely important and should be highlighted in the future.

2. Results and Adaptive Management

While there has been progress in quantifying the important components of the technical foundations of the project (summarized above), the ISRP notes limited confirmation-to-date through research and monitoring. The project attempts to confirm these relationships in the proposed activities. The five central activities for this project are logical extensions of ongoing activities (i.e., assessing salmon spawning locations with respect to thermal regimes indicative of hyporheic upwelling; the importance of floodplain shade in influencing hyporheic water temperatures; verifying and improving the TempTool model against empirical observations of hyporheic and channel water temperature; exploring the use of continuously logged temperature data; developing remote sensing classification and mapping methods to identify areas with high potential for hyporheic influence on stream temperature). Collectively, these activities address thermal issues that remain major challenges for conservation efforts in the Columbia Basin and provide tools that are potentially beneficial throughout the region and world.

The proponents describe a complex series of processes to provide adaptive management (AM). They have a regularly scheduled sequence of meetings both within the program and outside the research program with other decision-making processes of the CTUIR. Though it is not a strictly defined series of adaptive management steps, the identification of regularly scheduled coordination efforts and planned decisions provide the guidance and anticipated opportunities to adjust plans, consistent with a more formal adaptive management process.

3. Methods: Project Relationships, Work Types, and Deliverables

The ISRP greatly appreciates use of the SMART framework for the deliverables. This project was one of few proposals in this review to do so, and it illustrates a high level of expertise and strategic thinking for this project.

The ISRP found the proposal provided a clear outline of project activities. The detailed technical background and justification, as well as a clear set of proposed activities for the next phase, gave the ISRP confidence that the project has strong leadership and vision. The Gantt chart was also helpful in understanding the project's sequencing of the five activities.

The proponents are commended for their significant partnering with numerous and diverse groups, including other Tribes, USGS, USEPA, university researchers, and so forth, which expands the scope, impact, and dissemination of knowledge generated from this work.

The research methods and models are documented in peer-reviewed publications, past annual reports, and technical documents. The methods are well-suited for the research questions and field applications. The linkages between research components and on-the-ground restoration actions, both past and future, are a major strength of this project.